Friday Five: Patience & Persistence

Sally says...

As I write this I can see out over our newly set up veggie plot from my study window. When Tim and I moved here in August last year he set to work clearing the ground, this spring I began planting seeds indoors and out, and now the beds are full of leaf and promise. We have harvested some spinach and lettuce, but still have to wait for the main crops....

Patience is something that sometimes comes easy and sometimes doesn't, in the case of the garden it is easy, I can see the growth and know that waiting will produce good results. With other things patience is more difficult....

Along with looking forward to eating our own veggies, we are also looking forward to seeing four of our children graduate with Bachelors degrees this year, they have worked hard over the three years and stuck at it through some difficult stuff. It would have been easy for them to give up, but they haven't...

Persistence often pays off, but we need to be aware that it sometimes turns into sheer pig headed-ness...

With all that in mind I offer you this Friday Five:

1. Is patience a virtue you possess? If it is then does it come naturally, if not how do you/ did you work at it?

Not remotely.

When doing the "Belbin" test during training, I found that I had practically a negative score as a "Completer/Finisher"...I like instant results, before there has been time for me to be distracted by the next shiny thing just out of sight. 

That said, though I have no patience with projects or things, people are so endlessly beguiling that I have no problem being patient with them.

Except for a certain vicar whom I know too well. Her repeated failures, her stubborn refusal to learn from her own mistakes, makes me snarl and growl with frustration. I know I'm a work in progress - but here, as in the decorating, I want results NOW!

2. Being patient with ourselves can be a huge challenge, we are often our own worst critics; is there anything you need to be patient with yourself with at the moment?

I haver between being over-tolerant of my own inadequacies (I suspect that actually it wouldn't be beyond the bounds of possibility for me to keep the study tidy, get to bed before midnight, and give the dogs a decent walk every day if I were actually to try) and desperately frustrated at my inability to cram quarts of activity into pints of time. I always believe that I CAN fit in 6 impossible things before breakfast and am outraged when this fails to come about...

What I need most is a dual gift: realism about just who I am, and patience as the implications of this come home to roost.

3. Are you the kind of person who can/ will persist with a difficult task? How much of this is personality related?

My best beloved father was one who Never Gave Up on anything (dying of cancer, he prolonged his life by some weeks, I'm certain, because he was determined to finish reading A la recherche de temps perdu in French)...I lack his staying power but it has left a legacy, in that I do find it hard to give up on things, even when it might be best to do so. I DID manage to give up A level German when I realised that I was going to hate every single one of the set texts...but generally, if I have publically committed to something, then I will see it through regardless.

This holds good for real challenges - but in the smaller things - clearing out the garage, creating a flower bed, - I'll be off over the horizon in pursuit of any possible diversion. I'm ENFP to the core!

4. Can you spot when persistence turns into pig-headed-ness, or do you never get there?

Ermmm....See above. I think the jury is still out. Hindsight may make it clearer...

5. Post a song or a poem that chills you out and helps you to re-group, re-focus and carry on?

The slow movement of the Bach Concerto for two violins is so complete in its perfection, it stills me and gives me a glimpse of eternity...at which point, my failure to prepare properly before painting the kitchen becomes rather silly really.

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Bonus, a picture or a photo that speaks to you of patience or persistence...

Well - if I were designing things, we would all be issued with seven-league boots as standard, so that the goals once recognised could be achieved instantly (but then perhaps I would miss the detours?) Anyway, given that the journey is also worth savouring, and that I know I'm a long way short of being a finished product, I guess I'll make do with this.